Attached
by Lovely Little Muse
Summary: AU Human. Bella and Edward meet by chance, and they keep getting thrown together. They know it's not meant to be...or is it? Will they be able to refrain from getting too attached?
1. Snuggle and Tide

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Twilight

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Twilight. I'm just having some fun with them.**

**BPOV**

I sighed in frustration as I wrestled the last remaining piece of packaging tape out of my hair. There had been a prolonged battle, but I had emerged victorious: the majority of my clothes and possessions were now tucked safely away in 4 large cardboard boxes. I took a long moment to survey the remnants of my room. My wonderful, sinfully comfortable bed lay bare and abandoned in the middle of the room, flanked by my nightstand and an (unprecedented) uncluttered desk. The closet was practically empty, and my bookshelves were ransacked. It looked like I had been burgled.

"Bella! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!" Alice bounded into my room, and shook her head sadly when she saw me half-heartedly disentangling my hair from the rogue piece of tape. "Is this why you've been taking forever?" she asked, coming over and easily pulling the piece of offending tape from my hair.

I looked down at the carnage, and saw that I had approximately an entire roll of tape crumpled and discarded on the floor. "There may have been a bit of a struggle…" I admitted.

"Well the cavalry has arrived, and we have to get going if we want to beat the traffic." She opened the door to my room further, revealing Rosalie, my other roommate, along with two poor, unsuspecting guys who she somehow managed to convince to help us carry boxes down to our cars.

One of the volunteers, a tall, lanky red-head, was already laden with an armful of leftover shopping bags and totes containing boxes of Rosalie's shoes. Rosalie's eyes skipped over him to his burly, dark-haired friend. "Those boxes go in the Chevy." Rosalie seemed to think this was enough of a dismissal, and quickly turned back to Alice and I.

"Where did you find those guys?" I asked quietly as the second one grabbed one of my boxes and headed out the door and down the stairs, following his buddy.

Rosalie shrugged. "They were carrying their clothes back from the laundry room, and I intercepted them."

"All it took was some strategic flirting. They were putty in our hands." Alice smiled over at Rosalie from her position perched on the edge of my bed.

I couldn't help but laugh at the scene in my head. Alice and Rosalie never had any trouble turning guys into putty. I almost felt sorry for the poor chumps. They never stood a chance against my beautiful, conniving roommates. "But Alice, what about the new guy?"

Alice smiled unconsciously at the mention of her latest crush, then bit her lip. She met him a week ago in a bar, and was immediately smitten. I hadn't met him yet, but she had been practically obsessed, so I knew he must be a good one. She was still suppressing a smile when she answered, "Oh, Potential Boyfriend won't mind. This was for purely practical reasons. If we'd let you carry those boxes down the stairs, we'd have to make a stop in the ER before hitting the road."

Alice and Rosalie snickered at me and I blushed. Snuggle and Tide entered and each took another box and headed back down the stairs. Rosalie grabbed the last box and gracefully balanced it against her hip with one arm as we followed the boys out the door. We paused for a moment and took in the view of our apartment, which we wouldn't see again for 6 weeks.

Our 2 cars were waiting out in front of the building, and I couldn't help but notice how pathetic my truck looked in comparison to Rosalie's BMW. I also gaped at the overflowing bed of my truck. My boxes were pressed for room amidst a flood of Louis Vuitton luggage and shopping bags. "Alice, we are coming back here you know! What all did you bring?"

"It's just the essentials, Bella, don't worry," Alice assured me. I truly believed that she could avoid washing her clothes for the entire duration of our time away, and she still wouldn't run out of outfits.

Rosalie threw the last of my boxes on top of the heap and turned to face us. It was then that it began to hit me that we would be apart for the next 6 weeks. I stubbornly blinked back the tears threatening to well up in my eyes. _Stupid renovations! _I thought angrily. _I don't want to leave my home and my friends for 6 weeks!_

Alice was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. "This is so silly. We'll talk all the time, right, Rose?"

Rosalie smiled. "I'll call every hour, on the hour, I promise. Unless I'm 'otherwise occupied'," she threw in with a wink. Alice stood on her tippy-toes and threw her tiny arms around Rosalie, but still only managed to wrap around the upper arms of Rosalie's tall frame. Rosalie laughed and hugged her back fiercely before turning to me.

"You're going to come visit us in Colorado, right?" I asked as I hugged her tightly. "It'll be a break from the rain, anyway."

Rosalie chuckled. "You bet, I'll be there. I'm still jealous you guys are getting out of this ridiculous state!" As if in response to our conversation, I felt the first few drops of rain. I pulled away and glared up at the sky. "Drive safely, okay? Call me when you get there."

"We will, Rose. You drive safe, too, and have fun with your family."

Rosalie waved one last time as she turned to head toward her car, and I walked around the hood to get into the driver's seat of my truck. Alice settled herself into the passenger seat and fiddled with the radio dials as my truck roared loudly to life. We weren't getting much but static on the radio and I prepared myself for a long drive.

**EPOV**

So it's official. Summer sucks.

I stood leaning against the back counter inside my own personal prison, trying my best not to glare at anyone who came close to the cubicle. Management would not be happy if I began scaring away all the customers. However, Management was also not likely to be pleased if I suffered a mental breakdown and screamed at an unsuspecting 13-year-old girl, and this was quickly becoming a possibility.

Because if one more person ordered a Frappuccino, I was going to snap.

My green Starbucks apron was smattered with various sticky liquids, and my 6 by 4 foot workspace was disastrous. It seemed that the moment the temperature spiked above 75 degrees, every person within a 15 mile radius flocked to the local grocery store's Starbucks to order a frozen, blended beverage.

The past 2 hours of my life had been spent frantically running around the small space, maniacally throwing Frappuccino mix into blenders. Since we only had two blenders, the routine required constant runs through the wash process between drinks. Prepare beverage. Soak, rinse, sanitize. Repeat until insane.

There seemed to be a temporary lull, and I took advantage of the opportunity to quickly and efficiently clean the area. I made more Frappuccino mix and stuck it back in the fridge, satisfied in the knowledge that in 13 minutes my shift would be over, and someone else would face the remainder of the night.

I was lucky, and the customer lull continued. I served only 1 customer in 13 minutes, and the order was a simple iced chai, which was quite possibly the easiest drink to make. By the time Devin arrived to begin his shift, I had restored the counter surfaces to their normal color and texture, which was still slightly sticky, but that couldn't be helped. I had also remade the coffee, refilled the espresso beans, and there was a tub of mocha ready for use in the fridge.

I slipped the disgusting green apron off before climbing into my car and threw it on the floor of the passenger side. A shower was definitely called for before anything else, as I realized with horror that there appeared to be some caramel sauce in my hair.

I pressed the remote to open the garage door as I pulled up to the house, but sighed in frustration when I saw a humungous Jeep taking up every square inch of the garage. I backed down the driveway again and parked on the side of the street.

"Emmett!" I bellowed as I walked in the front door. "I thought we agreed that I would park in the garage!"

My large roommate appeared around the corner with a bag of chips in his hand. "I don't get why you get the garage, Edward. Why does my Jeep have to be subjected to the elements?"

I rolled my eyes. In the beginning of June in Colorado, the only 'element' was wind, and the monstrous off-roading machine was sure to stand up to a little breeze. "I get the garage because technically this is my house, Emmett. And my parents are the reason we get to live here rent-free."

Emmett mumbled his agreement to park his vehicle in the street, and flopped himself down on the couch in the living room while I climbed the stairs up to my bedroom.

One long, hot shower later, I was feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I had shed the remnants of any sticky liquid substances that may have accumulated from my 8 hour shift. After throwing on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I headed back downstairs to see what Emmett had planned for the evening. He had warned me not to make plans for tonight, so I knew he must be up to something.

"Hey Em, so what's the plan for tonight?" I asked as I came up behind the couch.

Emmett turned around and grinned at me, shrugging his broad shoulders. There was a sparkle of excitement in his eyes, and that should have tipped me off right then. No good could come of this. "There's a new restaurant opening, and I figured we would go try it out," he answered.

That didn't sound so bad, but I knew I had to be missing something. Luckily for Emmett, I was in a good mood since I had the day off tomorrow. "Alright, what time are we leaving?"

"Be ready by 9!" His devilish grin made me laugh as I climbed back up to my room.

**A/N: Alright, here it is! My first Twilight fanfic. Just to be clear, everyone is human, and no one is related. Our characters are 21 years old, and in the summer between their 3****rd**** and 4****th**** years of college. Review and let me know what you think!**


	2. Socially Awkward

Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters, I just like to have fun with them

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Twilight characters, I just like to have fun with them.**

**A/N: Thanks to my reviewers from the first chapter! Here's the next installment.. enjoy!**

**BPOV**

"Bella! Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella!" I awoke to Alice's musical voice, slightly squeaky with excitement. I groaned as I sat up in my seat and felt the stiffness in my neck and shoulder. "Wake up, we're here!" Alice exclaimed.

"I'm awake," I grumbled. I rubbed my stiff shoulder as I began to take in my surroundings. We were pulling into the driveway of Alice's parents' house.

I knew Alice came from money, but when I found out how much property they actually owned, I had to admit I was a little shocked. This was one of about 5 houses that they owned, and was the one that Alice considered home. Since Alice's parents would be away for the entire summer, they had offered it to us to stay in while our apartment building was undergoing renovations.

Summer break had just begun from the University of Washington at Seattle, where I had met Alice and Rosalie. We had lived together at our apartment since the summer after our freshman year. Another wistful pang hit me; I was really going to miss Rosalie. At their request, she had grudgingly agreed to stay with her own parents during the renovations. The corners of my mouth twitched as I thought about how she was going to adjust to life with her parents.

Alice had parked my truck and hopped out gracefully, running around to my side and waiting for me to do the same. I had to unwind my limbs and clothing from the seatbelt, which had somehow become impossibly twisted during my nap.

Alice practically ran circles around me on the way to the front door, where she pulled two keys from her pocket and handed one to me before fitting the other into the lock.

"Wow," I breathed. The inside of the house was incredible. It was very obvious that the Brandons worked very hard to keep the house modern and up-to-date. The interior was elegant and amazing, but I still felt very comfortable. It's beauty managed to be warm and inviting, not the type that made me afraid to breathe for fear of breaking something.

Inside the front door was the entryway, and off to the right was a grand staircase leading to the second floor. Alice took my hand and immediately began giving me the tour. The beautiful wood floors extended into the kitchen, which featured a large island and beautiful stainless steel appliances. Behind the kitchen table were French doors leading to the deck, complete with a hot tub, and looking out over the backyard with a sprawling swimming pool.

The living room held a sectional sofa facing a complete entertainment system, with a fireplace off to one side. There was a half-bath down the hall, across from an office that we barely peeked into before Alice moved on. The dining room held a table for 10 on one side of the staircase, and off to the right side of the entryway was a 'sitting room' (as Alice called it) that included a fully-stocked bar.

We headed up the stairs to the second floor, where Alice pointed out her parents' room at one end of the hallway. Still holding my hand, she pulled me toward the other end of the hall. I suppressed a giggle as we passed Alice's childhood pictures hanging on the wall, and she turned to give me a small glare.

Her wide smile was back as she was unable to contain her excitement as the tour came to a close. "That's one of the guest bedrooms, and the guest bath," she said, pointing to two separate doors on one side of the hallway. "But you'll be staying here, right next to me!"

She opened the door to what was going to become my bedroom, and a wide smile broke out on my face. It was beautiful! The walls were painted a light gray, except for the wall behind the bed, which was accented with a beautiful blue. A window with sheer white curtains let light flood the room. The most prominent feature of the room was a queen-sized bed with a white down comforter, and it was overflowing with pillows. I noticed an opened door on the right side of the bed which revealed a rather large walk-in closet. A bedside table, a vanity, and a bookshelf were the only other pieces of furniture in the room. Mounted on the wall across from the bed was a smaller version of the plasma tv I had seen downstairs in the living room.

"Alice, it's perfect!" I squealed. She was bouncing slightly, still grinning, with excitement gleaming in her eyes.

There was another door to the left side of the bed, and I went to investigate. Opening it, I discovered that it led to an attached bathroom, and I breathed out another sigh of amazement. The bathroom was the same color blue as the wall in the bedroom, with white accents. The shower had glass all around, and I noticed that it looked rather advanced, with all kinds of nozzles I was sure I wouldn't know how to work.

"I get my own bathroom?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Of course, silly," she replied, as if it should have been obvious.

"Let me see your room, Alice!" My tour guide was only too eager, and she corralled me back out into the hall and opened the door next to my room.

I laughed out loud at the sight of Alice's room. I faintly recalled from when we met that she had been obsessed with color pink. She still was, as a matter of fact, but the obsession had diminished in intensity to a much healthier level. I continued to laugh as my friend practically danced into the room and threw herself onto her bed.

The furniture in the room was almost identical to mine, but it was difficult to realize that with the dramatic difference between the two rooms. Alice's walls were painted with horizontal stripes of lighter and darker pink. I suppressed another giggle as I realized that it reminded me of a shopping bag from Victoria's Secret, which is where Alice works.

Alice continued to sit perched on her bed, which was a barrage of varying shades of pink, ranging from baby pink to the color of Bubble Yum. The accents covering her shelves and walls continued the theme. Pink candles, pink picture frames, and even a pink lamp adorned the room. I fought the urge to take a step back out the door, feeling the need to escape the bombardment.

"Wow," was all I could come up with.

Alice just laughed and shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. "Yeah… Nothing in here has changed much since I left for college."

"It's very 'you', Alice."

"Yup," she smiled. "It's still my room, and I love it!"

"We should probably go get our stuff out of my truck and start bringing it up," I sighed. "It's too bad we can't get volunteers to help us this time."

Alice leapt off her bed and I followed her down the stairs. "You never know!" She turned and threw a playful wink over her shoulder, and I bit the inside of my cheek. What kind of trouble was she going to get into now?

Alice led the way out the door and down the driveway, where I stopped to grab one of my first boxes from the bed of the truck, but Alice grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Much to my surprise, I found myself following her down the driveway and onto the sidewalk, where we headed over to the house next to us. I could do nothing but watch as she walked up to these poor people's house, rang the doorbell 3 times in succession, and stood there waiting with her hands behind her back. It was like a train wreck; I wanted to look away, but I just couldn't.

I felt a blush rising to my cheeks as a blond-haired guy who looked to be about our age opened the door. _Alice, you're on your own_, I thought. _I'm not going to help you get out of this one_.

The blond guy looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face for a moment, but she simply continued to smile at him. A grin soon began to spread across his face, and I thought he was most likely pleased to find a beautiful girl standing on his front porch. "Alice Brandon?" he asked. My expression turned to one of confusion.

Alice turned to me to give a quick smug smile before turning back to the boy. "Hello, Mike. It's nice to see you again."

"What are you doing here?" the guy asked. "I thought you were living in Washington? Did you move back, or…" He trailed off, and I felt my blush return when his eyes came to rest on me. The lull in conversation was obvious and awkward.

Alice suppressed a laugh and beckoned me over to join her on his front porch. "Mike, this is one of my best friends, and my roommate, Bella Swan. Bella, this is Mike Newton. We went to high school together."

Mike Newton extended his hand for me to shake, wearing a goofy grin that made him look like a twelve-year-old. "It's nice to meet you, Bella."

"It's nice to meet you too," I replied politely. He still hadn't stopped staring at me, and I looked to Alice for help.

"Bella and I are going to be living at my parents' house for awhile, and we were wondering if you could help us carry in some boxes?"

To my dismay, Mike didn't look away from me when Alice spoke, but his grin grew wider. "I'd love to!" he replied automatically.

The three of us managed to get all of the boxes, bags, and luggage upstairs and into our respective rooms in only about 45 minutes, and I only tripped up the stairs once. This was minimal damage, considering my reputation for being so klutzy that it could be considered a handicap.

It had begun to get dark outside, and Alice, Mike, and I had ended up in the living room. I sat down on the couch to examine the bruises that were forming on my shins from my fall. Much to my dismay, Mike plopped himself down right next to me, a little closer than was socially acceptable.

"So you live in Washington?"

"Yes," I replied, still trying to be polite. "Our apartment building is being refurbished, and we needed to be out of there for awhile."

"What do you do there? I mean, where do you work?"

His questions were fairly innocent, so I struggled to maintain my patience with him. I don't know why, but he bothered me immensely. "I'm a Literature major at the University of Washington in Seattle. I don't have a job, but I'm going to need to find one here pretty quick, at least for the summer, so that I can afford rent next year." My plans for the next day already included job-hunting.

"I'm the Assistant Manager at Starbucks," he stated proudly, without being prompted. "One of those ones inside a grocery store, you know?" He looked to Alice, and clarified. "It's the one off of Fifteenth and Maple." Alice nodded wisely.

Mike got a really excited look on his face, which immediately worried me. "Hey!" he exclaimed loudly, startling me. "We need a position filled! Why don't you come work with me, Bella?"

The enthusiasm on Mike's face still bothered me, and I had a feeling that this might not be the best idea. But on the other hand, I really did need a job. "Well…," I replied, trying to weigh my options quickly.

"Really, Bella! We've been looking for someone for a few weeks now, and we're getting pretty desperate, since summer has started. If you've worked in customer service before, I could probably get you the job without an interview!"

"I suppose that would be alright," I mumbled, coming to a final decision. If it didn't work out, I could always look for something else. "Yes, that would be great, Mike. Thank you."

"I'll talk to my boss about it tomorrow and you could start as early as the next day!" Mike was beaming, looking absolutely pleased with himself.

We discussed the possibilities, and I explained that I had in fact worked in customer service. About a year and a half ago, Alice and Rosalie had convinced me to apply at Victoria's Secret with them. We all got hired, and to Alice and Rosalie it was a dream come true, but after three weeks I discovered that retail was just not a great fit for me.

I was slightly relieved when the conversation turned to a topic other than me.

"When are you expecting your parents home?" Mike asked, looking at Alice for the first time since we sat down.

"Actually, Bella and I are staying here alone for the next 6 weeks," Alice replied. "My parents are at their house in Barcelona."

Mike whistled. "House all to yourselves, huh?" He looked disturbingly excited at the prospect. "So what are your plans for tonight?"

My head spun around to stare at Alice with wide eyes, begging for help. She took the hint and luckily decided that I had had enough torture for the evening. "Actually, I think we're going to turn in early. We've had a long day, and didn't get much sleep at that dingy motel last night." Alice stood up from the couch, and I faked a yawn right on cue. I stood up as well and we both looked at Mike expectantly.

"Alright, well I guess I'd better get going."

We walked him to the front door and even went so far as opening it for him, but still he lingered. "Oh, Bella, I need your phone number!" He must have seen me balk. "So I can call you about the job, I mean. I'm sure it will work out. You'll be employed by Thursday!"

I took his cell phone somewhat reluctantly, and programmed my number. I almost felt bad about being rude after he'd practically guaranteed me a job, so I gave him a small smile when I handed him back his phone. I realized my mistake immediately when he took his step forward, and I braced myself. He gave me an awkward hug, and I saw Alice shaking with silent laughter over his shoulder.

He backed away, looking embarrassed. "So, um, Bella, I'll call you. About the job, I mean. Um, I'll see you guys later!"

Alice shut the door and leaned against it, finally allowing her laughter to escape. I just glared at her. "Thanks, Alice! You could have warned me, you know!"

"About what?" She was still trying to get control over her giggles.

"About the fact that your neighbor is such a creeper!"

That just set her off even more. "Bella, I swear, I've never seen him like that before! He's usually pretty harmless, just a little socially awkward. He was just completely smitten with you! At one point I'm pretty sure I saw him drooling."

I just sighed and turned to head back upstairs to my room. I had promised to call Rosalie when we arrived, so I shut the door to my bedroom to block out the sound of Alice's laughter.

After I was able to convey to Rosalie that we had made it here safely, Alice burst into my room and grabbed my cell phone, proceeding to tell her the tale of my encounter with Mike Newton. When I finally wrestled the phone back from Alice, Rosalie was still chuckling.

"Bella!" she scolded playfully. "What do you think you're doing over there? It's not fair to unleash your powers of seduction on these poor unsuspecting guys!"

"Look who's talking, Rose."

She laughed again. "True. Never mind that. Seduce away. Just, how do you think Jacob would feel about that?"

I couldn't help but blush when Rose mentioned Jacob. He hadn't been happy about me leaving in the first place. If he heard that I had guys hitting on me already, that would make him even more upset, and I couldn't stand hurting Jacob. After growing up together and being friends for years, we had finally started dating about a year ago. He was a year younger than me, and had just become a member of a fraternity at UW Seattle. He was going to be busy over the summer, but I knew he would miss me.

"Don't tell him, please?" I asked Rose. "You know how I hate to hurt him."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I've got to get to work, but call me later, ok?"

"Alright, bye, Rose."

I hung up and looked to Alice, who was still hovering in my doorway. "So what are we really doing tonight?" I asked.

"I was thinking we could go check out this restaurant that's opening tonight. It's supposed to be fantastic."

I glanced at my watch, and saw that it was already 7:30. "Alright, well then let's go."

"Not so fast, Bella! You can't go like that!" She looked me up and down, apparently horrified. "No, no, this won't do at all. Let's get you changed into something fabulous." I let myself be dragged into Alice's bathroom. "I'm also going to have to do something with your hair…"

**A/N: Second installment. Sorry if this chapter was slightly boring, but I had to get some stuff set up. Keep an eye out for the next chapter! And let me know what you think so far, Review please! **


	3. Blond Vs Brunette

Disclaimer: I don't own any Twilight characters, I just like to have fun with them

**Disclaimer: All Twilight characters are the sole creation of Stephenie Meyer's wonderful imagination.**

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! I truly love to read what you have to say, and I try my best to reply to everyone. Look out for an extended Author's Note at the end of the chapter. And now, without further ado… **

**EPOV**

"How long has it been now?" Emmett whined.

"About four minutes longer than the last time you asked."

Emmett's brilliant plan to hit the new restaurant opening had backfired. Apparently everyone else in town had the same idea, and they had the foresight to make reservations. We'd been outside for the past 45 minutes, waiting for a table. About half an hour ago, I'd begun counting the number of people who walked in, reported their name, and were seated immediately. The count was up to 37. 37 people who were inside enjoying their food, while the two of us sat like idiots on a bench outside.

I was dejectedly staring at my shoes when I felt Emmett's elbow dig into my side. I leaned into him roughly, but he just did it again. I looked up, annoyed, but I followed his gaze to the two girls walking toward us from the parking lot.

They were engaged in an animated conversation. The short one was gesturing wildly with her hands, and whatever she said caused the other girl to throw her head back in laughter. I couldn't help but stare at the brunette. She seemed to be radiating happiness. Her long brown hair was swept back into a ponytail, but a few wisps were escaping and she brushed them out of her eyes. I turned my head to watch them as they drew closer to the restaurant.

As her black-haired friend opened the door, the brunette looked up and caught my gaze. Her brown eyes widened a bit, and she blushed before looking down and following through the door. _Smooth, Edward_, I thought. _Way to stare at her, now she thinks you're a stalker._ I cringed inwardly as they disappeared into the dark restaurant. My annoyance returned at the thought of them getting a table with ease, and my stomach growled.

"They were hot," Emmett mumbled. I simply nodded in agreement, and ran my hand through my hair. Then Emmett let out a loud sigh. "What time is it now?"

I groaned. "Emmett!"

My exasperated warning shut him up, at least for the time being, and I was able to resume my thoughts. I was considering just giving up on the restaurant altogether. At this point I was so hungry that I would be happy with stopping at a drive-thru on the way home. I was about to turn to Emmett to suggest this new plan, but out of the corner of my eye I caught the sight of the two girls emerging from the restaurant. The small girl with the short hair now had a scowl etched into her features, but my brunette didn't look quite as perturbed.

"What was her problem?" the short girl fumed. "I'm going to have a talk with the manager about that girl's attitude!"

She had turned as if to head back inside, but the brunette placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "They're just busy, Alice. Give her a break."

The other girl turned back around, and her scowl lessened a bit. To my surprise, she turned to face me. "Did they kick you out, too?" My gaze flickered from her face to the eyes of the girl standing behind her. She blushed again, but didn't break eye contact. I suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

I realized that the short girl, _Alice, according to her friend_, was still waiting for an answer. She raised her eyebrows, probably wondering if I was mentally competent. "Yes." _Wow, Edward, that was really eloquent. Well-put, my friend._

Luckily Emmett was never at a loss for words. "They've left us starving out here for 45 minutes!" he exclaimed. "How many people have gone in since we've been waiting?" he asked me. He turned back to the girls. "Edward has been counting them."

"We're up to 37 happy diners," I replied, glad to be able to prove my abilities to converse with others. "It's becoming a little absurd."

"And now we're up to 41," the brunette chimed in. A party of four had just walked in the doors.

I looked up at the beautiful girl and felt the corners of my mouth turn up into what I hoped was not a ridiculously over-enthusiastic grin. _Don't scare her away!_ She answered with a small smile of her own, and my heart skipped a beat.

Emmett gestured to the empty half of our bench, and the girls sat down, with me at one end and _her_ at the other. "I'm Emmett, and this is Edward."

The black-haired girl smiled and shook Emmett's outstretched hand with enthusiasm. She pointed behind her and I held my breath, waiting to hear the other girl's name. "This is Bella…" _Bella. Beautiful. _I thought. _How perfect._ I missed the other girl's name, but I was already pretty sure it was 'Alice'.

Emmett had already begun to engage Alice in conversation, plotting against the poor restaurant hostess. I smiled and nodded when required, but was otherwise lost in my own thoughts. And at the moment, those thoughts all centered around the gorgeous girl sitting across from me.

She was chuckling at whatever scheme Alice and Emmett were cooking up. Her bangs were falling into her face, and I actually felt my hand twitch with the desire to push them back behind her ear. I blinked a few times. I wasn't sure what was going on, but it was certain that this girl had a hold over me. I wished that I could talk to her, but it would be difficult with my large roommate and her tiny friend between us.

"We should just storm in there and demand a table!" Emmett cried. "Our names have been on the list for almost an hour now!"

Determination flashed in Alice's eyes and she immediately stood up, trying to bring herself up to her full height (which still wasn't anywhere near intimidating), and squared her shoulders. Emmett grinned widely and followed her toward the restaurant.

I looked over at Bella and gave her a look which questioned the sanity of our friends. She shrugged, smiling, and stood to follow them. I held the door open for her, and trailed after them.

The hostess was looking flustered as she grappled with Alice, and if I hadn't been so hungry I might have felt sorry for her. I never would have thought that someone so small could be so scary, but Alice's hands were flying about as she yelled at the poor girl. The hostess tried to take a small step backwards in an attempt to escape, but she ran into the restaurant's manager, who had come to see what all the fuss was about. I stepped closer to the podium to try to pick up the conversation.

"I'm very sorry Miss," the manager was insisting. "But we are almost completely booked tonight. We've just opened, and we received a huge number of reservations for-"

Alice cut him off, but she was facing away from me and I couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Miss, I'm sorry, but-"

Alice's hands waved wildly again for a moment. I still couldn't hear what was said, but the manager's face fell.

"I'll see what I can do." He turned and walked away, and Alice faced us with a smug smile. Before I could find out what had just happened, the manager returned. "Miss, we've found a table for you and your party, if you'd like to follow me please?"

I laughed in disbelief as we followed the manager to a booth near the bar, which was in the process of being cleaned as we approached. The busboy saw the manager coming, and struggled to quickly finish placing the silverware before darting out of the way.

We each slid into the booth, with Emmett and me on one side and Alice and Bella on the other. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss?" the manager asked Alice. His tone was forcefully polite.

"No thank you." Alice's voice was also dripping with sarcastic sweetness. "That will be all for now." The manager looked upset at this blatant dismissal, but he simply turned and walked away.

Before the manager was even out of earshot, Emmett started booming with laughter. "Brilliant!" he exclaimed, reaching across the table to give Alice a high-five. Alice returned his gesture, grinning wildly. "I'm starving," he added.

"Me too." I flipped open my menu and began scanning the pages. I had gotten to the point of being so hungry that absolutely everything on the menu sounded delicious. I felt my gaze drawn to Bella, sitting directly across the table from me. I looked up at her under my eyelashes and saw her doing the same thing. Her face flushed and she was the first to break contact, looking back down at her menu. I turned my attention back to picking a meal, and struggled to suppress a smile.

A blond waitress came over to ask for our orders, and I noticed her eyes lingering on me and Emmett. We were both accustomed to this kind of attention from women; I tried my best to ignore it most of the time, but Emmett seemed to enjoy it. He gave her his order, and handed his menu over with a wink.

She barely looked at the girls when she took their orders, and then she turned to me and batted her eyes. I tried my best not to give any false impressions of me possibly having any interest in her. "I'm going to have the 'Mountain Lion Burger'," I quoted, trying to focus on my menu to avoid eye contact. "And why don't we all start with the 'Seven Sample Appetizer'?"

Emmett made an appreciative noise as I ordered the appetizers. The sooner we got our food, the better, and I wasn't taking any chances of Emmett's ribs holding up our entrees.

The waitress seized the opportunity when I looked at her to hand back my menu by winking at me and licking her lips. I heard Bella turn a giggle into a cough. _At least someone's amused by this_. I couldn't help that a small part of my mind was also transfixed by how cute her laugh was.

As soon as the waitress left, Alice and Emmett amused themselves by teasing me. I could already tell that the two of them would make a dangerous team. "She was practically sitting on your lap while she took our orders!" Alice exclaimed gleefully. She was having way too much fun with this.

Bella was kind enough to refrain from taking part in the mockery, but she was laughing at everything they said. _Not that I mind her laughter_, I reminded myself. "Don't you have anything to add?" I asked, shooting her a playful pretend glare.

"No, I think they have it pretty well covered," she laughed. Her smile was radiant. I knew that I was kind of staring, and I knew that I should look away… but I couldn't. Luckily for me, our appetizers had arrived, and I leaned back in my seat to make room for the giant platter and the four plates being set in front of us. It wasn't our waitress who delivered them, and for that I was grateful.

The laughter died down as we eagerly dug in, loading our plates high with all the typical appetizers. My personal favorite had always been the potato skins, and I knew that Emmett would be practically diving into the nachos. I made a face as I saw Bella taking the otherwise ignored mozzarella sticks.

She saw my look, and raised her eyebrows. "What?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "Mozzarella sticks? Really?"

"And just what's wrong with my mozzarella sticks?" she asked, tilting her head and waiting for an answer.

"It's deep-fried cheese! What more of an answer do you need?" I had always found that particular finger food especially disgusting.

Her only answer was to bite into one. "Mmmmmm…"

Outwardly I rolled my eyes, but I felt the increased tempo of my heartbeat in response to her 'yummy noise'.

It wasn't long after we finished our appetizers when our waitress, accompanied by another waiter, brought us our main courses. As soon as the waiter left, the waitress turned to me. "How does everything look?" she purred. I was about to answer that it looked great, but as I turned my head I saw that she was leaned forward over our table, angled toward me to give me an unobstructed view down her shirt.

I snapped my head back to stare at my plate. "We're fine here, thanks."

She leaned even further forward and threw her hair over her shoulder. "Let me know if there's _anything_ you need." She exaggerated the swing of her hips as she walked away, and all I could do was stare open-mouthed in astonishment, shaking my head slowly. _In what universe is it acceptable to flash complete strangers while they are eating?_ I thought. But, at the same time, I knew that some guys would have cherished the attention.

As if to prove my point, Emmett leaned over and whispered to me, not quite low enough for the girls not to hear him. "Dude! That waitress is all over you! Are you gonna get her number, or what?"

I just growled at him and picked up my burger. I was grateful that no one pushed the subject. The table became quiet as we devoured our meals hungrily. The appetizers hadn't been enough to curb my appetite and I managed to finish off nearly all of my burger.

Alice had just launched into a story from earlier today featuring her next-door-neighbor trying to hit on Bella. By the end of the story I had tears in my eyes and Emmett was draped across the table laughing hysterically.

"People like him shouldn't be allowed to mingle with the rest of society!" Bella insisted. I liked that she was good-humored enough to laugh about her situation.

Before we had fully recovered, Emmett began the story of the last girl I'd been unfortunate enough to spend an evening with. I rolled my eyes as he began, but even I had to admit that it was a good story. She may have been the most dim-witted girl I'd ever met, and that was saying something, considering the number of bimbos who had thrown themselves at me over the years. By the time Emmett reached the point in the story where I had to drive her to the emergency room, my face hurt from laughing so hard. Bella's face was streaked with tears, and Alice had fallen over sideways onto her friend.

My own father had been the attending ER doctor that night, and I had to explain to him that I was unaware of the girl's allergy to nuts when she'd asked to try my dessert. "She asked for a bite! How on earth was I supposed to know that her throat was going to close up?" The girls were still cracking up as I concluded the story. "I mean, come on! It was _pecan pie_!"

The waitress had long ago dropped off our bill, but none of us had bothered to even pick it up, we'd been so deeply involved in our conversations. An outsider looking in would never have guessed that we'd known each other for only a couple hours.

The restaurant had cleared out, and the waiters were going around to the few tables still occupied to announce that it was closing time. I stuck my credit card inside the folder and handed it to the nearest waiter as he walked by. We had forgotten to ask for separate checks. I insisted on that it was no big deal, but Alice was adamant about paying me back for the girls' half of the bill. Sensing that arguing with Alice was probably pointless, I grudgingly stuffed her cash into my wallet.

The blond waitress returned with my card. She had what I could only assume was supposed to be a seductive smile plastered on her face, and I braced myself for what was coming. She leaned in even closer to me as she slid the leather folder onto the table. "You didn't even get dessert," she said, sticking her bottom lip out. Then her face lit up, and I tried my best not to cringe at where I thought this may be headed. "You know, my shift is over… We could go out for drinks…" She was leaning in so close now that I got a whiff of her perfume, which she had obviously just re-applied, as I could practically taste it in my mouth. "Don't worry, I could take you home," she assured.

I coughed slightly against the offensive perfume, and managed to choke out a "No thanks".

"I guarantee we could have some fun together," she persisted. I clenched my jaw, trying to figure out a way to get rid of this chick.

"Actually, _I_ will be taking him home tonight." I looked up at Bella, my savior, with wide eyes. The blond who was draped over the table turned to face her as well, and gave her a sneer. But, thankfully, she stood up and stalked across the room and through the doors to the kitchen. I must have been staring at Bella again, because she began to look a little sheepish. "I'm sorry," she stammered. "It just looked like you could use some help over there."

"Oh, no, thank you!" I assured her. "You saved me!" She just giggled.

I opened the leather folder to sign the receipt, and was not surprised to find the waitress's phone number on my copy. I tore my receipt into pieces and left it on the table, just to make sure I got my point across.

The four of us made our way outside into the night. I hadn't realized how long we'd been talking and laughing together, and was surprised to find that it was past midnight. Bella and I led the way to the parking lot, and Alice and Emmett trailed behind us.

My thoughts began to race as we approached our cars. _Would I ever see her again?_ I didn't like the fact that the answer could be no. _Is it too soon to ask for her phone number? Would I seem too eager?_

I was still trying to work up some courage when I noticed that she had stopped in front of an old, rust-colored Chevy truck. "This is us," she sighed, pointing over her shoulder.

"Well thanks for making dinner possible!" Emmett boomed. "We'll see you girls later!" He had already begun walking in the direction of my silver Volvo, parked two rows away.

Alice was climbing into the passenger seat of the truck, and I had to stop Bella before she walked around to the driver's side. "Will I see you again?" I called anxiously. _Smooth. That wasn't desperate at all._

She turned back to me with a hint of anticipation in her eyes. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. "We'll see." And with that, she got into her truck and the engine roared to life.

Emmett was waiting impatiently next to the Volvo for me to unlock the doors. When we were inside, he began his commentary of the evening.

"That Alice girl is some piece of work! I almost felt bad for the manager," he was saying as we pulled back out onto the street. "And that waitress! Damn, Edward, she was all over you tonight! Why didn't you go for it, man? She was kinda hot."

"You know I don't like blonds, Em." I couldn't help my mind already drifting back to a certain brunette, and I mentally kicked myself for not getting her number.

Emmett knew me well and knew where my thoughts were focused. He laughed loudly as I turned up the radio to try to drown him out.

**A/N: There you go! There was originally going to be more to this chapter, but this one was getting long so I split them into two and decided to post what I have so far. Hopefully the next update won't be too long from now.**

**Additionally, I thought maybe I should share with you **_**why**_** I'm writing this story. It's pretty much just the fact that I wanted to get back into the habit of writing, and I thought I could have some fun with the Twilight characters. It all started one day when I did something especially klutzy, and my roommate informed me that it was very "Bella-esque". That gave me the idea to put the characters in some funny situations that I've been in myself. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Bella and Edward at Starbucks especially… I've worked there before (also at Victoria's Secret, like Alice and Rose) and I know first-hand what sorts of situations and calamities can occur. Most of the experiences they have, I'm afraid to say, are actually based on true events. So, that's my story… literally! **


	4. Dirty Dancing

A/N: Thanks so much to all my reviewers

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer, writer extraordinaire, owns all the characters you recognize.**

**A/N: First off, I'm so sorry it's been so long since last chapter! **

**Also, thanks so much to everyone who has added the story to their alerts/favorites, and those who have reviewed! Like everyone, I truly love getting feedback, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to review. I appreciate it!! Now, let's see what our favorite characters are up to…**

**BPOV**

Driving home, I couldn't help but notice Alice's extremely uncharacteristic silence as she studied me. I had turned the radio on to try to fill the void, but the only station coming in was some sort of heavy metal that made my head hurt. I decided to simply try to ignore Alice's strange behavior. Maybe she was just tired. I knew I certainly was. Combined with the fact that we really didn't sleep well the night before, all that hysterical laughing during dinner had wiped me out.

Thinking about dinner obviously led to thinking about Edward and Emmett. _Ok,_ I admitted to myself. _Maybe not so much thinking about Emmett_.

I had to admit to myself that Edward was intriguing. He had kept me laughing, even if it was at his own expense. I appreciated that he could have a sense of humor about his situation with that overly excited waitress. I rolled my eyes again just thinking about what a fool she'd made of herself with her obviously unwanted advances. _Not that I can blame her for trying…_

I had noticed Edward right away when we had arrived at the restaurant, but I'd never thought that we would end up spending the evening together. I was immediately mesmerized by him. He was one of the most gorgeous guys I'd ever seen, and that was before I found out that he had the whole package… personality, humor, charm. The way his green eyes sought mine out, and when he smiled that adorable lopsided grin…

"Aha!" Alice's outburst jarred me out of my daydreaming. "Right there!" she cried. "What were you just thinking about?"

"What?" I stammered, trying to buy time. I felt my face turn hot, knowing I'd been caught.

Alice's wide grin proved that she knew my train of thought without having to ask. "You are _so_ in love with that guy."

"If by 'that guy' you mean Jacob, my _boyfriend_, then yes, you are right," I answered cheekily.

Alice continued to grin like the Cheshire cat, completely undeterred. "He is quite gorgeous," she stated matter-of-factly. "And he's in love with you too, _obviously_." She drew out all the syllables of the word.

"How do you figure?" I scoffed.

"Please, Bella." Alice rolled her eyes.

She spent the rest of the car ride rattling on about me and Edward. _Who I'll probably never even see again,_ I reminded myself, surprised by the sinking sensation in my stomach. _Why didn't I get his phone number?_

'_Jacob!_' my conscious screamed at me.

It was true; Jacob would be hurt if he found out that, in my first day in Colorado, I had attracted the attentions of two different boys seeking my affection.

_What makes you think Edward is seeking your affection?_

I realized with a start that the voice in my head was correct. Edward was clearly just being polite. It could have been extremely awkward being stuck at a table with a group of strangers, and they had just been trying to make the best of the situation. _Of course!_ Alice was just imagining things.

We'd arrived home, and I parked the truck in the garage before following Alice up the stairs. We said our goodnights in the hallway, and disappeared into our respective rooms. I undressed and changed into pajamas, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed. I did miss my own bed, for which I had not only a pillow-top mattress, but a featherbed topper and a down comforter, in addition to as many pillows as my heart desired. However, this bed came in as a close second for most comfortable in the world, and I fell asleep to thoughts of Jacob. A bronze-haired, green-eyed, wonderfully funny Jacob…

I'd been awake for approximately 5 minutes, but due to the brightness behind my eyelids, I was trying to procrastinate actually opening my eyes. Hesitantly, I peeked one eye open, but immediately closed it against the light flooding my room. _Note to self: close the curtains before bed_.

I tried to roll out of bed with my eyes closed, which was a decision I regretted immediately. Even with my eyes open, I would've had trouble navigating the unfamiliar room which currently had boxes lying about haphazardly. As it was, I caught my foot against one of the boxes and went flying, but by throwing my hands out in front of me, I was able to avoid ending up in a heap on the floor.

After narrowly escaping an embarrassing death (or at least minor injury), I was faced with the task of figuring out how to work the many faucets and nozzles of the shower. Once I found the right combination of temperature and water pressure, I found it was actually a very pleasant shower. When I was done, I threw on my very best 'laying around the house' clothes, since my plan was for a long day of unpacking.

Walking down the stairs, I was hit with the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Alice and Rosalie were the only people I'd ever met who rivaled my level of addiction, and who knew how to make _my_ kind of coffee; the ratio was approximately half a bag of coffee per cup of water. Add Vanilla Caramel CoffeeMate, and drink. Repeat as needed.

"Bless you!" I cried as Alice handed me a mug of coffee, made to my specifications. Looking around, I could see that she had also scrounged up some bagels. "I love you, do you know that?"

"Of course you do!"

"When did you do all this?" I grabbed an 'everything' bagel and took a big bite before taking the time to spread the cream cheese.

"I ran to the bagel store about an hour ago." She swiped a finger in my cream cheese and licked it off. "And I knew that I couldn't let you wake up without your coffee. We don't want a repeat of Dark Tuesday…" She shuddered.

I grinned. About a month ago the coffeemaker at our apartment broke, which wasn't that big of a deal. Until the next day, when the withdrawal began. The three of us were plagued with shakiness, headaches, and fatigue. The real low point wasn't until Rosalie made a comment that upset me, and I retaliated by threatening the fate of her favorite Dolce and Gabbana handbag. Alice, aghast at the thought of such a crime against fashion, kidnapped my beloved blue sweater and held it hostage. Things turned ugly, and we headed out to the first store we found to buy a new coffeemaker.

"It's not my fault I'm addicted. If I recall, it was you who got me hooked on coffee in the first place."

I rolled my eyes, and we came to a silent, mutual decision to change the topic. "I'm guessing you're headed off to work?" I deduced, taking in her outfit of a black skirt and blazer.

She nodded, her eyes glittering with excitement. "Hopefully I'll get to have some fun today!"

I laughed, knowing Alice's version of 'fun' at Victoria's Secret. Her favorite part about working there was, of course, the discount. Her second favorite, however, was scaring the hell out of guys who came in alone, shopping for their significant other. I had seen her in action, and it was hilarious to watch the guys fidget and fumble and ultimately leave the store with at least 100 worth of merchandise that Alice loaded them up with.

"I'm sure you will," I grinned at her. "I'll see you later tonight."

Alice grabbed the key that was hanging neatly by the back door and said goodbye as she headed into the garage. I remembered her telling me that she hadn't felt a need to have her car in Seattle, so she kept it at her parents' house. I was pretty sure I had seen the tell-tale red, black, and gold of the Porsche logo on her key.

I had finished my bagel and was on my way back upstairs when I heard my phone ringing, and I ran to answer it. "Hello?"

"Bella?" I couldn't help but cringe at the sound of his voice. "Hi, it's Mike! Mike Newton, from next door!"

"Hi, Mike. How are you?"

"I'm fantastic, and yourself?"

"I'm doing okay, thanks." _I'd be doing better if you told me that this creepy phone call has a purpose… perhaps a job offer… _

"Well, I have some news that will make your day! I talked to my boss, and I got you a job here at Starbucks!"

He paused, apparently waiting for me to squeal in excitement. "Oh wow, that's great, Mike! Thanks a lot." I tried to scrounge up as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I was grateful, at least, even though Mike himself would not be my first pick of coworkers.

"I know, it's great! And you're welcome! You can start tomorrow!" He went on to explain that I would have to come in today to fill out paperwork for HR.

"Sure, Mike. Sounds great."

"Super! Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then! I'll be training you for your first shift!" His enthusiasm was obviously not fake.

"See you then!" I couldn't help a small shudder as I hung up the phone.

I turned my attention back to unpacking my boxes for the next few hours. I felt homesick already when I started unpacking my picture frames, and I decided to give Rosalie a call. Just as I expected, she immediately launched into a list of why she couldn't stand being back at her parents' house. I laughed as she divulged her plans to provoke them for the fun of it. One scheme involved her bringing home Max, a somewhat-scary-looking friend of ours with full-sleeve tattoos and 17 piercings, and introducing him to her parents as her new boyfriend. I was sure that Rose's parents would love that.

I also tried to call Jacob, but his phone went straight to voicemail. "Hey, it's me. I just got done unpacking at Alice's house, and just wanted to call and check in. I got a job already, can you believe it? I'll be working at Starbucks, one of those ones inside a grocery store or something. How is the fraternity going? Did you get all moved in to the house already? I guess I'll talk to you later. Ok, love you, bye!"

I sighed and sat back on my bed, admiring my new room. With my belongings on the shelves and my posters and pictures gracing the walls, I was beginning to feel more at home.

I tried to watch tv to pass some time, but there was nothing able to hold my attention, so I decided that now was as good a time as any to go fill out paperwork.

I braced myself as I entered the store, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the Starbucks booth, and luckily Mike was not present. I introduced myself to the curly-haired guy working, and learned that his name was Greg. He was nice in a generic sort of way, and had a friendly smile. _Alright, so I could work with this guy. Not too bad. He's not that great at carrying on a conversation, but it's nothing I can't work with…_

I also met Candy, the energetic blond Human Resources representative. After filling out all my required paperwork, which took about 45 minutes, I watched several wonderful training videos. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud at the ridiculous acting.

I managed to keep my composure until halfway through the video about sexual harassment in the workplace. Two male workers asked a passing female worker if she "liked her salsa _hot_", and I couldn't help but laugh. Luckily no one was in the immediate area.

Almost 3 hours later, I waved goodbye to Greg and left the store, but not before grabbing some ingredients for dinner. I was pretty sure we didn't have anything at the house.

When I got home, Alice was thumbing through the phone book and I laughed at the expression on her face. She looked up and started to glare at me, but broke out in a wide smile when she saw my grocery bags. "Oh Bella, thank you! I was just trying to figure out what we could order for dinner, and trust me, the prospects weren't looking too great." She shoved the phone book back into a cupboard.

"Well how does spaghetti sound?"

"Fabulous!" she exclaimed, fluttering around and trying to take a look inside my plastic grocery bags. "Mmmm, and garlic bread! You are my hero!"

I laughed. "Yes, I get that a lot."

"Hey I've got a proposal for you," Alice began. I looked at her warily, but just waited for her to continue. "If you make dinner, I will run out and grab a movie, and we can have a girls' night in!"

"Deal!"

While Alice left for the video store, I boiled the spaghetti and baked the garlic bread. I heated up the spaghetti sauce from a jar, but then threw in some extra herbs and spices; it was my own special recipe for when I didn't have the time to actually make the sauce.

Alice returned just in time, and I dished us up each a plate before heading back into the living room. She popped in the DVD and just smiled when I asked what it was, and made me promise not to look at the box while she disappeared back into the kitchen. I set our plates on the coffee table and situated myself on the floor. Alice came back in carrying two glasses of wine, and I beamed. "Thanks!"

"No problem. Now let's get this party started!" She hit play on the remote control and settled in next to me on the floor.

I burst out laughing when the opening credits began. "Alice, you didn't!" I exclaimed. She just giggled, and turned up the volume. She'd chosen the ultimate guilty pleasure movie, and I loved her for it.

We laughed and squealed as we watched Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey dance up a storm. Two hours and six glasses of wine later, we were ready to call it a night.

"I have to spend eight and a half hours with Mike Newton tomorrow!" I groaned.

Alice just laughed at me once again. "Oh Bella, give him a break, he just likes you is all." Then she grinned. "I bet you wouldn't mind if it was Edward…"

I chucked half of a piece of garlic bread at her. "Shut up," I grumbled.

However, as I climbed into bed and drifted into a pleasant, wine-induced sleep, I couldn't prevent my thoughts from wandering back to the beautiful boy from the restaurant.

_A tall equals 3 pumps of syrup… A grande equals 4 pumps… A venti equals 5 pumps, unless it's iced… _My mind had been repeating recipes for the past couple hours while I intermittently watched Mike prepare beverages and tried to pay attention to my training. It was all a little overwhelming; who knew there were so many different ways to drink coffee?

It didn't help my efforts at concentration when Mike would 'accidentally' brush up against me, or when he leaned in a little too close to look over my shoulder as I prepared a drink. The little Starbucks cubicle wasn't too spacious, but he could afford to take a step back. I was trying to think of a way to casually mention the fact that I had a boyfriend. However, I didn't think it would be at all casual if I blurted it out while he was demonstrating how to make Frappuccino mix.

"And then you just add water," he concluded, shoving the pitcher under the water. "See?"

I just nodded and smiled, much as I had been doing all day.

"I know it can seem a little overwhelming right now, Bella." He tried to console me by placing a hand on my shoulder. "But it's actually really easy once you get the hang of it!" If nothing else, at least Mike's enthusiasm was catching. I was almost having fun on my first day at work, which is quite an accomplishment.

Mike moved to the cash register to take a customer's order, and handed me the cup he had marked. "Can you make this drink please, Bella?" I looked down at all the symbols and such written in the small boxes. I gulped and nodded.

_So the 3 means 3 shots…. And the V means vanilla… and L is for latte! Excellent, Bella!_ I congratulated myself on deciphering the drink while I steamed some milk and pressed the right buttons on the espresso machine. I repeated the customer's order back to her as I handed off her drink. I turned back to Mike with a proud smile.

"Congratulations, Bella! You're doing very well for your first day!" He clapped me awkwardly on the back, but then thankfully took two steps toward the swinging door of the cubicle. "Well my shift is over, so I'm off for the day. Someone else will be coming in to help you out for your last hour, and you can ask him if you have any questions." He looked somewhat distraught about leaving, so I decided to encourage him.

"Okay, thanks, Mike. I think I'm starting to get a handle on things here. Thanks again for the job."

He grinned wildly. "No problem! I'll see you later, Bella!" I think he may have actually winked at me when he turned away, but I tried not to analyze that too much. Hopefully he was just having facial spasms.

I grabbed a tall 'iced' cup, and thrust it under the water fountain after adding some ice cubes. Leaning back against the counter, I sipped at my water and surveyed the store from my little Starbucks corner. A woman was fighting with her five-year-old over a box of cereal. A college-aged kid was pushing his cart filled with spaghetti-o's, bread, and frozen pizzas toward the check-out.

I looked up as I heard someone enter the workspace through the swinging door, and my heart almost stopped.

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks as I took in his somewhat-unruly bronze hair, and those piercing green eyes. I watched his eyes widen slightly in recognition, and then he slowly broke into a lop-sided grin.

"Hello."

"Hi," I managed to choke out.

**A/N: I know, I know, it's been forever! I'm sorry! I've been crazy busy and all that. I'll try not to let it be so long between chapters next time. Let me know what you thought! Review please.**


	5. Rolling the Dice

EPOV

A/N: I'm sorry it's been forever since I updated! I have excuses, including school, work, moving, etc. Luckily the semester is almost over, and I hope to have more time to write/finish this story. Thanks for your patience!

Disclaimer: I don't own any Twilight characters, I just enjoy throwing them into random situations to see how they react.

**EPOV**

The beautiful brunette girl from the restaurant was leaning against the side of the sinks in the Starbucks cubicle, just as I had many times before. A slow blush crept into her cheeks as she recognized me, and I couldn't help but grin.

Once I'd regained control over my body and vocal chords, I managed to utter a "Hello". Her response was quiet and her blush remained. I couldn't believe my luck! Since the night we met, I'd been kicking myself for not asking for her phone number. It wasn't every day that you met a pretty girl who was actually able to carry on a conversation.

The silence became palpable as we stared at each other. _Say something, Edward!_ I cleared my throat. "So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?"

She pulled her eyes away from mine, but smiled. "My new neighbor got me a job here… Mike Newton? I guess he's the Assistant Manager."

"Oh, well that's great!" I said lamely. "I'm happy to see you again. As much as I hate to admit it, I need to thank Mike the next time I …" I let my sentence trail off as realization dawned on me. I remembered Bella and Alice telling a story at the restaurant about their creepy neighbor. The creepy neighbor was Mike Newton.

I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face, or the laughter that followed. "Mike is the creeper who hit on you?" I choked.

She bit her lip to keep from laughing, and just nodded shyly. "He just left. He was training me for my first shift. I just don't see how he manages to be so awkward! He was _still_ trying to hit on me."

Once I managed to stop laughing, I donned a mock-serious expression. "That could be considered sexual harassment in the workplace. I could have a talk with him," I offered.

She laughed at my remark. I remembered the sexual harassment training videos that the store forced upon new employees, and figured she was probably having flashbacks.

"Thanks," she giggled. "I'm sure my boyfriend would appreciate you looking out for me."

My breath left my body, and I felt like I'd been dealt a swift kick in the gut. I kept smiling as I turned to fiddle with the espresso machine while Bella greeted a customer who had just appeared. I hadn't heard anything after the word _boyfriend_.

_Damn it, Edward, of course a girl like her has a boyfriend._ All the good ones were always taken. I fought through my disappointed haze as I made the customer's drink.

_What did you expect?_ I was mentally beating myself for thinking that she would just… _Just what? Jump into your arms and beg to be yours forever?_

I tried to think back to the night at the restaurant. Had I flirted too much? Was I too obvious? I shuddered to think that she may be just as disappointed to be working with me as she was to be working with Mike. My heart sank.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, pasted my smile back into place when I realized that I was frowning, and handed the drink off to the customer. Turning around to face Bella, I found her in her original position, leaning against the back counter. I walked over and leaned next to her.

"How has your first day gone so far? Aside from working with creepy guys?" I fought to keep my voice light, and gestured to myself to let her know that I wouldn't be upset if she placed me in the 'creepy' category.

She rolled her eyes, still smiling, and leaned into me playfully, knocking me slightly sideways. "Well, now that the creepy guy has left, I have a feeling my day will be looking up."

I grinned. "Alright, well let's continue your training, shall we? Are you up for some more Starbucks 101? Or do you have a handle on all the basics?"

She groaned. "I had no idea there were so many different ways to drink coffee! How do you keep track of all the recipes?" I laughed, but she continued, becoming more exasperated. "And the symbols! I have no idea what half of the letters stand for. CM, CRF, WC, SFV? How do you keep them straight?"

"I have an idea," I began, going over to the cash register and gathering my supplies. "We're going to play the dice game."

"The dice game?" The look on her face was apprehensive, and I couldn't help but grin wider.

I rummaged around in the drawer before emerging victoriously with the dice in my hand. "These are the dice," I explained. "They each have drink specifications on them. I roll the dice and you have to interpret the symbols, and mark the cup accordingly. Got it?"

She still looked skeptical, but moved to stand next to the stack of cups, marker in hand. "Got it. I'm ready."

We spent the next 30 minutes playing the dice game, stopping intermittently to serve customers.

I'd just finished handing off another drink to a customer, and turned my attentions back to my beautiful co-worker. "Do you feel better about the symbols yet?"

"Yes, I think I have a better handle on cup-marking. Thanks, that was kind of fun."

"Good, I'm glad! Working at Starbucks _is_ fun, I promise. And free coffee is always a perk."

"Yeah, I can't argue with that," she laughed. "I'm just not really looking forward to working with Mike again."

If I were a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over my head. We had been short-staffed for awhile, since we had some college-aged employees who had graduated and moved on to their full-time careers. The store had been trying to find someone with open availability who could work the morning shifts, since they were typically the least-desired shifts among employees.

"You know…" I began, taking on a conniving tone. "If you don't want to work with Mike again, I think that could be arranged." She raised an eyebrow at me and simply waited for me to continue. "The store has been looking for people to cover the opening shifts. The hours are absurdly early, so no one has volunteered, and I happen to know that Devin would really prefer an afternoon shift. I could go tell management right now that you and I can volunteer to be openers, and since we only need two, there's a very good chance you won't have to work with Mike again for quite awhile."

She grinned at me, and I couldn't help returning the gesture enthusiastically. "Genius!"

"So you're in?"

"I'm in! Sign me up!"

I laughed, and left to do just that. I headed over to the Customer Service desk and sought out the Store Manager to volunteer our services.

"That's great, Edward!" Kate exclaimed. "Do you think you guys could start tomorrow? I'm pretty sure Devin has had enough of the early hours. I caught him catching a nap in the break room last week."

I laughed, and agreed that we would begin our new shifts immediately. Technically, only one person had to come in at 5:30 to 'open' and prepare for the day, and the second person should arrive at 6, when the store opens. I volunteered for the 5:30 and let Bella take 6:00, but for the first day we would both arrive at 5:30 so I could teach her the opening procedures.

I explained the plan to Bella, and was glad to see that her enthusiasm didn't fade when she realized that she'd resigned herself to early nights and earlier mornings. She seemed genuinely relieved to be free of her personal, not-so-secret admirer. _Little did she know that she was quickly gaining a new one._

In between serving a few more customers, I taught her how to make the mocha syrup, and stuck it in the fridge for later. I knew that her shift was coming to an end when I saw the next person come in and head over to the time clock in the break room before starting their shift.

Bella stepped outside the booth and removed her apron, before taking her hair out of its ponytail and shaking it out with her fingers. I couldn't help but imagine how it would feel to run my own fingers through her hair…

"I'll see you tomorrow!"

The sound of her voice jolted me out of my fantasy, and I waved. "Bright and early!"

She just smiled over her shoulder, and I saw Tanya on her way to take over for Bella. The two exchanged quick greetings and goodbyes, and then I was alone. With Tanya.

"Hi, Edward," she purred. I rolled my eyes and braced myself for the rest of my afternoon, mentally attributing another benefit to my new arrangement with Bella.

**BPOV**

I used my car ride home to settle myself. My afternoon of work had been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and I wasn't sure about anything except the fact that I was very _intrigued_ by Edward.

_Intrigued? Who are you kidding?_

I shushed my inner-voice and decided instead to think about what I had just gotten myself into. What had I been thinking when I agreed to wake up at some unearthly hour in the morning?

_You were thinking about the gorgeous guy standing unfairly close to you at the time._

I sighed, frustrated with myself, and decided to focus on the bonus of not having to work with my new neighbor. Not seeing Mike on a daily basis was a definite 'plus', and surely that had factored into my decision process… right?

By the time I pulled into the driveway behind Alice's Porsche, I had managed to convince myself that my motives were purely based on my self-preservation instincts. It took too much effort to thwart Mike's advances politely, and somehow I thought it might be a bad idea to get fed up and snap at my new boss. I really did need to be making money this summer, and job opportunities don't grow on trees.

I tossed my keys onto the kitchen island. "Bella?" Alice's head popped up from her position on the couch. I smiled, seeing that she was re-watching 'Dirty Dancing'. _One of the million reasons I love Alice._

"Hey!" I plopped down next to her. "You will never believe the day I've had."

Alice pressed the pause button on the remote and tucked her legs under her, turning to face me on the couch and preparing for my story.

I began by telling her all about my day with Mike, and paused while she finished laughing, allowing her time to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes. "That's hilarious!" she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry for you! Good luck working with that creeper!"

I just smiled, which peaked her interest immediately.

"What?" Alice's eyes grew wide. "Bella!" she squeaked, "What aren't you telling me?"

I laughed again. "Well, Mike's shift ended before mine, and you'll never guess who came in next to finish my training." I paused again for dramatic effect, and Alice began to shake, so I finished quickly to prevent her combustion. "It was Edward, that guy from the restaurant!"

I threw my hands up in front of my face in an attempt to guard myself from the screams erupting from my roommate. "I knew it!" she squealed. "I knew you two were meant for each other! Oh Bella, I'm just so happy for you!" She threw her arms around my neck and I laughed, hugging her back, before disentangling myself.

"We worked out our schedules so that I won't have to work with Mike again."

Alice squealed again. "We? You're going to be working with Edward every day?"

I rolled my eyes, but nodded. I let her antics continue for a few minutes before putting a stop to it. "Calm down, Alice. It's not like anything's going to happen."

"We'll see." She stood up and walked into the kitchen to get some dinner, but I followed her.

"Honestly, Alice, I have a boyfriend, and Jacob is-"

"Halfway across the country," she finished.

"Wonderful, I was going to say."

She leaned across the kitchen island on her elbows. "Bella, come on. I know that you love Jacob, but when was the last time that you really felt that… that spark, you know? I really think that it's time for you to move on. You two have been best friends since the beginning of high school. Didn't you ever think that maybe that's all you're supposed to be?"

I fell onto a stool, shocked. How long had Alice felt this way about Jacob?

"I love Jacob!" I insisted. "We've been together for two years! I love him. He's the only boyfriend I've ever had."

"Exactly. Don't you ever wonder what else is out there?"

I shook my head. Arguing with Alice was pointless, and I should've known better than to start this discussion. Alice always thought she was right. _And she usually is._ With that, I shut out the voice in my head.

"Well, I know that I love Jacob. And it's not like this whole Edward thing really matters anyways. Like you said, he lives halfway across the country. In six weeks, we'll be going back to Seattle, and I'll never see Edward again. Even if Jacob _were_ out of the picture, I'd never get too attached to someone I'll never see again."

Alice just sighed, and pushed herself up off her elbows to continue making her dinner. The discussion was officially closed.

We spent the rest of the evening as if the conversation never happened. I went to bed early in preparation for my early morning, but found myself lying in the comfortable bed, unable to sleep. All the thoughts I'd been pushing aside flooded back.

My subconscious knew that, on some level, Alice was right. It truly had been a long time since I'd felt that 'spark'. I _did_ love Jacob. I knew that, and I knew that my feelings for him would never change. But the last thought I had before sleep finally found me was that I knew, without a doubt, that I still wanted to get to know Edward.

The truth was, I did like Edward. And just because he couldn't be my boyfriend didn't mean that we couldn't be friends. Aside from Alice and Rosalie, I didn't have many close friends, and that got me thinking that maybe Alice was right, and I did need to find out what else was out there. And so, as I fell asleep, I determined to be friends with Edward.

_Take a chance, Bella._


	6. Juggling

"Ouch

Disclaimer: All Twilight characters are from Stephenie Meyer.

**BPOV**

"Ouch!" I yelped. I'd just stubbed my toe, hit my elbow, and smashed my shoulder into the wall, all in one graceful maneuver. I suppose that's what I get for walking through the hallway with my eyes closed. But somehow I just didn't have the energy to open them.

What the _hell_ had I been thinking when I agreed to wake up at this ungodly hour?

When I finally managed to stumble my way into the kitchen, with my hair still damp and carrying my socks in my hand, I glared at the clock on the microwave, which was flaunting the fact that I was awake at 5:17 am. This also meant that I had 13 minutes to make it to work.

I searched the cabinet for a travel mug for my coffee, but came up empty-handed. Frantic, I looked in the dishwasher, but found nothing helpful there, either. I'd already spent 2 minutes in my search and was now probably going to be late, so I improvised. I poured my coffee into a glass with a base I hoped was small enough to fit in my cup-holder, splashed in some creamer, and ran out to my truck.

Luckily the traffic at 5:20 in the morning was practically nonexistent, and I pulled into the Safeway parking lot just as the clock on my dashboard struck 5:30. After tossing my purse into the break-room locker I'd been assigned, I clocked in at 5:32. _Not too bad._

I mentally, _And emotionally_, braced myself before turning to head towards the Starbucks booth. Edward was waiting.

As soon as he saw me walking over, a smile spread across his face. I could _attempt_ to control my thoughts, but my bodily reactions were a different matter completely. My heart fluttered, and I felt my cheeks redden slightly. I remembered my resolution from last night, and gave him a smile back. _Just because he's devastatingly attractive doesn't mean you can't just be friends. _

"Good morning!" he called as soon as I was within hearing distance. "How are you this lovely day?"

I finished pulling my green apron over my head before quirking an eyebrow at him. "I'm exhausted. You, on the other hand, seem positively chipper this morning. How's that possible?" I almost kind of hated him for being so ridiculously enthusiastic at 5:35 am. Almost… but not quite.

Edward just laughed, while holding open the swinging door for me to enter the booth. I edged past, careful not to touch him. I looked up into his eyes expectantly, awaiting the answer to his unusual perkiness. "We work in a coffee shop, Bella. I got here a bit early this morning, and I've already had a couple shots of espresso."

"Well don't hold out on me, Edward!" I laughed. "Make it a double!"

He grinned. "I can do better than that." He grabbed a "short" coffee cup and set to work while I watched curiously from my position leaning against the sinks. "This is the coffee equivalent of 'Better than Sex Cake'." He threw a glance over his shoulder at me while making my drink and his crooked half-smile almost made me melt.

I watched as he proceeded to fill the cup halfway with whipped cream, poured caramel sauce over it, and then pulled two shots of espresso over the top. He swirled the cup around while the shots were pouring, to enable the hot coffee to mix with and melt the whipped cream/caramel concoction. When he was finished, he handed me the drink and stood with his arms crossed over his chest, staring at me as I took my first sip.

It was delicious. I slurped down my two shots of espresso, and hoped that it would give me energy for the day to come. My eyes widened, and I looked at Edward in admiration. "Wow. That's good."

He grinned, and copied my raised eyebrow move. "So? What do you think? Does it live up to its name?"

I was confused for a moment, before remembering that he had referred to the drink as 'Better than Sex'. I felt a blush rising to my cheeks just at having 'Edward' and 'sex' coexist in my thoughts. To cover my embarrassing involuntary reaction, I just laughed at him and made a production of turning around to throw away my cup. I regained control of myself before turning back to face him. "So are you going to show me how to open this place up, or what?"

We began to go through the motions of opening the espresso bar. Edward had already filled the espresso beans, obviously, and begun brewing coffee. Since I already knew how to do both of those things, we moved on to the other necessary activities. No sooner had we begun brewing the tea for the day, than I turned around and found several Safeway employees standing before the cash register.

I gathered orders from the first 3 employees, and moved away to help Edward prepare the drinks. I was handing off the last drink to one of the store's Assistant Managers when Edward turned to face the last waiting employee. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he took a few long strides to meet her and swept her into a quick hug.

"Good morning, Irina!" he greeted when they pulled away, both smiling. "What'll it be today?"

"Oh, surprise me," the red-head in front of him replied, smiling seductively. "You know what I like, Edward." I was shocked to see her wink at him.

I was even more surprised at his reaction. He winked back, and gave her his sexy lop-sided grin. "Coming up."

I moved aside to allow him to make the drink. I knew I had no reason or basis for feeling betrayed, but Edward's apparent flirtation with this girl had floored me. I thought he had been trying to flirt with me at the restaurant when we met… and even yesterday at work. Had I imagined it? I suppose if he has a girlfriend, that certainly would make my situation a bit easier. But I could have sworn he'd seemed slightly disappointed yesterday when I mentioned Jacob…

He finished making Irina's drink, and my jaw nearly dropped when she blew him a kiss before walking over to the Customer Service desk. He gave a short laugh, and waved.

I tried to hide my inner turmoil, but he must have noticed my shock, because after one look at me he hastily began to explain. "That was Irina," he announced unnecessarily. "She's a great friend." _Was I imagining the slight emphasis on the word 'friend'? _I didn't trust my own judgment anymore, since I had been fairly certain that until recently, he was only flirting with _me_. "I've known her since last summer, but I haven't seen her in awhile. She's been on her honeymoon."

I was still a bit tongue-tied, and all I could come up with was "That's nice". Luckily for me, business was starting to pick up now that it had reached 6:00 and we were officially open.

I finished brewing the tea we'd started earlier, and set about taking orders while Edward took over the role of barista. Since I was still learning the ropes, I figured I would just stick to cashier for the morning. Although we were rather busy, it was a relatively mindless job, and I took the time to gather my thoughts.

While there had been a part of me that had been relieved at the prospect of Edward having a girlfriend, I couldn't ignore the larger part that had been overwhelmed with jealousy. What right did I have to react that way? And more importantly, why would that be my reaction at all?

I had no claim on Edward. In fact, I was trying to convince myself not to _want_ a claim on Edward. Not in that way, at least. I was with Jacob. And Edward and I live in different time zones. I'd told Alice I didn't want to get too attached to Edward. But, on the other hand, I remembered my promise to myself last night.

I'd officially made up my mind. Edward and I would be friends, and that was it. The benefits of this arrangement were numerous, really. One, I would fulfill Alice's request to discover 'what's out there'. Two, I wouldn't end up hurting Jacob. Three, I would get to be with Edward…

I was interrupted from my mental list when I realized that I was no longer taking orders, but standing and starting blankly ahead of me. The morning had flown by; the rush was over, and there were no more customers. Rather than continue to look like an idiot, I turned and busied myself with dumping out the old coffee and brewing a new pot.

When that was finished I drained the sinks and poured fresh soap and sanitizer, while Edward grabbed a shopping cart and headed to stock room to retrieve the supplies we would need for the next 24 hours.

No sooner had he left, than I saw him headed back toward me. _A man that handsome does not belong in a green apron, walking down the frozen food aisle. _

I literally laughed out loud at my own thought, and banished it quickly. I couldn't help but acknowledge the fact that he pulled off the green apron beautifully, though.

"What's funny?" he asked as he approached the booth.

I scrambled for some way to explain myself. "Did you forget something, or what?" I asked, noticing that he had left the shopping cart in the back room.

"Yes." He grabbed my wrist and began towing me behind him towards the back room.

Embarrassingly, my heart fluttered just a little at the contact of his skin on mine. I mentally chastised myself, rolling my eyes. _There's no need for that kind of reaction!_ "Um, where am I going?"

He turned his head to look over his shoulder at me, and smiled. "Well I thought, while we're slow, that I would give you the tour of the back, and show you the ropes."

"What if we get a customer? No one is manning the booth."

He just laughed. "Don't worry, they'll page us." He continued his trek, moving quickly. Being a head shorter than he was, I had to practically jog to keep up.

We stepped into the grocery store's stockroom, and I couldn't help but feel like I was out-of-bounds. Edward seemed perfectly at home, though, and we turned to our left and walked past 2 walk-in freezers before reaching the one labeled 'Meat'. He pulled the freezer door open and walked inside, and since his fingers were still locked around my wrist, I followed.

I stared at the boxes upon boxes of frozen meat. What were we doing in here? I didn't see any coffee. Coffee doesn't have to be frozen. "Umm, Edward…." I began, looking at him curiously.

He just smiled, and placed both his hands on my shoulders. _Oh! _My heart began to beat sporadically again. _Is THAT what we're in here for? But… _My mind worked to come up with the reasons why I shouldn't feel excited about the fact that he was standing so close to me, why I shouldn't looking up at him expectantly, and why I should probably stop staring at his lips…

He solved my problem for me by gently spinning me around to face the opposite wall of the freezer. Realization dawned as I took in the shelf of frozen pastries. I felt the heat rise in my face, despite the cold temperature. I simply stood there as he grabbed the pastries we would need for the following day. He passed me boxes as he pulled them off the shelves, and by the time we were done, I could barely see over top of the pile in my arms.

Since I'm a total klutz even when I'm not visually impaired, I should have seen it coming. Edward held open the door to the freezer and I made it across the threshold in one piece, but then somehow managed to trip over thin air. I stumbled, and my body braced itself for impact.

Quick as a flash, Edward was right behind me, gripping my upper arms to keep me from falling forward. I managed to hold on to all but two of my trays full of pastries, and he chuckled as he picked them up for me.

"Thanks for the save," I mumbled. I quickly dumped my armload into the shopping cart we'd brought. "That could have been disastrous."

He had just thrown his own three trays into the cart, but his smile disappeared when he looked back at me. He came over and held my arm again, his fingers still cold, with a slight frown on his face. "What happened?"

I realized what had drawn his attention. There was a bruise forming around my elbow from my morning collision with the wall. A blush crept back into my cheeks at having to admit my own clumsiness. "I ran into a wall."

He sighed and shook his head, but I was grateful to see that his smile had returned. "What are we going to do with you, Bella?"

He led me a bit further down the hallway to a large shelf, and this time it was obvious we were in the right place. Each box had the Starbucks logo, and the entire third row of the shelf was lined with coffee bags. We gathered what we needed, and by the time we'd finished our cart was overflowing.

Between filling customers' orders, we began unloading the shopping cart and restocking our supplies. I had just replaced the empty Vanilla syrup bottle with a full one when I heard Edward's voice. "Heads up, Bella!"

I looked up and saw him standing outside the booth next to the cart, where he was supposed to have been restocking the cups in the cupboard. I saw him grin, and all the sudden a coffee bag was flying at me. I barely had time to duck out of the way, much less form any other type of reaction.

He laughed. Ordinarily I would be mad after being attacked by flying objects, but the sound of his laughter instantly erased any hard feelings. "You're supposed to catch it!" he teased, launching another coffee bag at my head.

I used my arm to deflect this one, and it fell to the ground. "I don't catch! I'm so clumsy that it should be considered a handicap! I don't catch, I get hit in the head, so watch it!" Before I'd even finished my tirade, another coffee bag flew through the air. To my own surprise, I actually caught it.

"There, see? I'm taking it upon myself to improve your hand-eye coordination, Bella." He tossed another bag in my direction, and I caught that one with my other hand.

"Who said it was your responsibility?" I asked, bristling a little. "I've managed quite well without your help for the past 21 years!"

Another coffee bag was headed my way, and this posed a problem. Both my hands were already full; how was I going to catch this one? Determined now to prove myself to him, I somehow managed to catch the third bag in the crook of my elbow, holding it against my body. The fourth and fifth bags met the same fate, and then thankfully he was out of ammunition. I dumped the five coffee bags onto the counter while he picked up the first two which had fallen to the ground.

"Well?" I asked, turning to face him. I couldn't even pretend to be mad, since I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "What was that all about?"

He chuckled again, and I found myself staring into his emerald eyes. "I had to try something to cure you of your 'handicap'. You could hurt yourself. And I might not be able to catch you _every _time you fall."

"No," I agreed, so softly that it was almost a whisper.

"But I _will_ try." His tone was teasing, but his green eyes couldn't lie, and they said he was serious. A customer approached and I was glad to have the excuse to turn away to hide my reaction.

Not getting too attached was going to be harder than I thought.

**A/N: **Sorry it's been so long, again! I've been moving, and attending graduations and parties, and had family in town…. And, honestly, I'm just having a really hard time getting this story out. Which is why this chapter is pretty much just filler. I have ideas for what's going to happen, and I know exactly how the story is going to end, I just don't know how to lead it there! Don't worry, though, we'll get there! Review please! Ideas are always appreciated, and if anyone's interested in being a beta for me, let me know.


	7. Toeing the Line

EPOV

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight characters, etc.**

**EPOV**

It's times like these that I resent being confined to a tiny 6-foot workspace. I have a view of the entire store, and I get to watch employees and customers running about, but three strides is as far as I'm allowed to wander. I had been watching for nearly 20 minutes as customers walked in the door, then kept on walking right past me. I hadn't had a single customer in those 20 minutes.

It was dead. And I was bored out of my mind.

My boredom began approximately 20 minutes ago, when Bella left for her lunch break. I had already cleaned the entire space and restocked/refilled everything I could think of. Everything's done, and I'm going crazy. The light at the end of the tunnel was the fact that Bella would return in 10 minutes. This fact had me glancing at the clock every chance I got, which was not making the time go by any quicker.

We had been working together for only 2 weeks, and already I couldn't imagine working without her. _I can't imagine __**being**__ without her._

I sighed, as I found myself doing quite often in the past couple of weeks. That kind of thought was exactly the kind of thought that was going to get me in trouble. The past 2 weeks had been, at the very least, an exercise in self-control. I was trying very hard to be good. Bella and I were friends, and coworkers, and nothing else. At least, that's what I was trying to convince myself.

Convincing myself of this was becoming increasingly difficult, however; trapped as we were in a small, confined space for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it was almost impossible not to notice the growing tension between us. Most of the time, I loved working with Bella. We had a lot of fun together, and I could laugh with her. Her wit, sarcasm, and sense of humor amazed me. On the other hand, working with Bella sometimes felt like torture.

I caught myself thinking of the most recent example of such a time, which happened to be the day before. We'd been laughing, and suddenly I found my eyes locked on hers while we both calmed down and tried to catch our breath. I was instantly hyper-aware of the fact that we were standing not even a foot apart, and I had to focus on steadying my breathing for an entirely different reason. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was falling into her eyes, and she was biting her lip. My gaze flickered to her lips and it took a tremendous amount of effort to tear my gaze away.

At times like those, the atmosphere seemed electrically charged, and the tension was palpable. I sometimes caught myself wondering if I was really the only one who felt it. _Of course you are, you idiot. Calm yourself_. Separated from her presence, it was much easier to think clearly; there was no way that this beautiful woman, with a boyfriend no less, would be interested in me.

I'd had my fair share of girls in my time. I had the misfortune of being good-looking, and that helped in attracting girls like the waitress who hit on me the first night I met Bella . Those girls were shallow, and definitely nothing like Bella. Bella would see right through my handsome exterior, and would surely find nothing underneath that could possibly be worthy of her affection.

There weren't many things about myself that I was proud of. According to commonly accepted religious beliefs, I was basically screwed. I've stolen, I've lied, I've coveted, I've committed adultery… What did I have to offer? Sure, I was in the top of my class studying pre-med, but even that I'd stolen from my father. I simply hadn't been able to think of anything better to pursue.

At that moment, the door to the store opened and my heart rate picked up, my eyes darting to the door expectantly. It was just a customer, though, and I sighed again.

Even as I listed the reasons I didn't deserve Bella, I couldn't ignore the voice in my head that was screaming at me to go for it anyways. If she _does_ feel the same way I do, would it really be so hard to steal her away from her boyfriend? I was pretty confident that with some effort, I might be able to manage it.

Before I could talk myself back into leaving Bella alone, I caught her entering the store from the corner of my eye. She gave me a bright smile that melted my heart before heading to the break room to clock in. I remained undecided until I heard her laughter, carrying over to me from where she stood chatting with another employee. I knew that I never wanted to stop hearing that sound.

Mission: Steal Bella away from **him**. I would make her mine, and spend the rest of my time making sure I was worthy of her.

_I am, after all, basically a selfish person_.

-- -- --

**BPOV**

I grinned at Edward over my shoulder, waving goodbye one last time before heading out the doors into the sunshine. It had been my turn to come in to work at 5:30 this morning to open, while he came in at 6, which meant that I got to leave first. We took turns with the opening duties, so every other day I got an extra half hour of sleep.

It was unusually hot outside and I cringed as I climbed into my truck, which had been baking in the sun all day. I rolled down the window on my side then leaned over to roll down the passenger side window, then turned my keys in the ignition, and… nothing.

Actually, it wasn't nothing. The engine made a horrible grinding sound, and _then_ there was nothing.

I let out a sigh, and threw my head back against my headrest, pounding it a few extra times for good measure. Alice and Rosalie kept telling me that my truck needed to be replaced. I had stubbornly argued, and now apparently I was paying the price. I violently ripped my keys out of the ignition and stomped back across the parking lot and through the doors, figuring I would at least get out of the heat while I figured out a solution to being stuck here.

Edward looked over as soon as I came in and gave me his crooked smile. "Did you miss me already?"

My heart fluttered just a little bit; I couldn't control the automatic reactions my body had to Edward, and I had decided to stop trying to fight it. I shook my head as if to clear it of my suddenly wayward thoughts and was brought back to my sour mood. "My truck died."

Edward snorted. "Are you sure it didn't commit suicide?" Edward's feelings about my truck were not very different from Alice and Rosalie's.

"This is not the time, Edward!" I snapped. "I love my truck, and now it is _dead_! And I'm stranded at work, with no way to get home, and then even when I do get home, I have to find a way to get my truck to a mechanic, and –"

"Whoa, Bella, calm down." Edward had wiped the smile off his face for my benefit, but his eyes were still laughing at me. "Don't worry about it, we'll call a tow truck to take your car to the shop, and I'll take you home. Just wait a few minutes until my shift is over, and I'll drive you."

I sighed and, despite my resolution to be upset, I did calm down a little. "Thank you, Edward, but that's ok." I began digging in my purse for my cell phone. "I'll call Alice. She can come get me." Edward looked like he was planning on arguing but before he could, a customer walked up and ordered a drink.

I walked over to Starbucks' dining area and plopped down at one of the tables while pressing number 2 on my phone, for Alice's speed dial. I listened to her phone ring 4 times before her voicemail picked up. She must be at work. I hung up my phone and dropped my head down to rest on the table.

I continued to pity myself for another couple minutes before I lifted my head again. I let out a strangled scream, and nearly fell off my chair. Edward had his elbow resting on the table with his chin in his hand, facing me across the small table. I hadn't even heard him sit down. "Don't do that!" I exclaimed, smacking him in the arm.

"What did I do?"

"You forgot to turn off your 'stealth' mode."

"So when is Alice going to be here?" I studied his face carefully, and saw the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He obviously knew Alice wasn't coming. I pursed my lips and averted my gaze from his. He gave in to his smile. "Would you like to reconsider my offer to drive you home?"

"No," I replied obstinately. The logical part of my brain was screaming at me, but somehow I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right. I had a feeling that he was right too often for his own good.

"Ok, well, I'm off then." He stood up and began to walk away. "Bye, Bella. Tell Alice I said hello."

He clocked out and waved goodbye to me one last time. As he walked through the doors and out into the afternoon sun, I sighed, then stood and ran after him.

"Edward, wait!" He was still smirking when I caught up to him. "On second thought…"

He just chuckled, and opened the passenger side door of a shiny silver Volvo. I glared up at him as I climbed in. I sat in the sauna-like car while he walked around to the driver side. I couldn't help being a little jealous when the engine started with a purr.

I would admit I was in a bad mood, and I stubbornly stared straight ahead as Edward rolled down both our windows. His wrist brushed against my hair when he braced his arm against the back of my seat to look behind us while backing out of his parking spot, and now I was staring ahead to avoid staring in his eyes. Or at his chest.

"So where do you live?"

I gave him Alice's address. It was about a 20 minute drive. "Thank you for this, Edward," I conceded. I was beginning to discover that maintaining a bad mood around Edward was difficult for me.

"Don't mention it."

For the first time since getting in, I noticed the music playing softly in the background. "Clair de Lune." I said it out loud, surprised that I recognized it.

He turned to me with a grin. "Yeah. My mom has always been into classical music, and she sort of got me into it."

I nodded. "My mom used to play it around the house all the time."

"So what else do you like to listen to?"

We launched into a discussion of our favorite artists, discovering that we had similarly eclectic tastes in music. From there we began to discuss movies, and by the time we were stopped at one of the major intersections between work and Alice's house, he had me doubled over laughing as he quoted Monty Python.

I was enjoying getting this glimpse into Edward's life beyond work. We'd been working together for two weeks, and I hadn't forgotten my resolution to become friends. We spent the next 15 minutes asking questions of each other.

"Favorite ice cream?"

He smiled. "Butter pecan. What about you?"

"Strawberry."

"Strawberry?" he asked incredulously, turning to stare at me as we paused at a stop sign. "Who likes strawberry?"

"Well I'm sorry my ice cream tastes don't live up to your expectations." I feigned offense, and he rolled his eyes.

"Alright, what is your favorite time of year?"

"Summer. You?"

"Fall."

"Favorite color?"

We continued our question and answer session, occasionally pausing to ridicule each other's answer or to discuss our agreement on a subject. The questions ranged from tastes in literature, which we found were surprisingly similar between us, to all-time favorite bad horror movies.

"When A Stranger Calls," we said simultaneously, but at the same time that I said "the new one", Edward said "the old one". We were laughing as he pulled up to the curb in front of Alice's house.

I had to catch my breath from laughing so hard, before turning to look cautiously over at Edward. He was looking at me, and our eyes met. "Thanks again for the ride, Edward."

"It's not a problem. If you want, I can come in and help you call a tow truck. I know a good garage around here."

I hesitated briefly. Was it really a good idea to have Edward come inside? Part of my brain screamed _Yes!_, and if I was being honest, that part was the majority at the moment.

I agreed, and I led the way in through the front door. I gave Edward a mini-tour, briefly pointing out the various appendages of the house as we made our way towards the kitchen. He took a seat at a stool at the kitchen island, folding his arms on top of the counter. I dug the phone book out and he flipped through it until he found the number of the garage he recommended.

I called the tow truck, and Edward just stared at me. I stood across from him and stared right back as I gave directions to the parking lot and described my truck. It was hard to keep from smiling when he stared at me that way. The corners of my lips kept twitching, and eventually I just turned my back to him as I continued to talk with the mechanic. I gave him my phone number, and he assured me that they could pick up my car before the end of the day, and that he would call me tomorrow with the prognosis.

I turned back around, setting the phone on the counter and running my fingers through my hair. If my truck could be saved, it was probably going to cost a fortune, and if it couldn't…

I chose that moment to look back over at Edward, but looked away after a moment. His expression had changed since I looked at him last, and it was a bit unnerving. He was looking at me as if I had just done something incredibly interesting and he was waiting for my next move.

"Do you want something to drink, or anything?" I asked, fumbling to break the silence.

He seemed to snap out of his trance. "What have you got?" He gave me his crooked half-smile.

I walked over to the fridge and threw it open, enjoying the cold air that rushed at me. The air conditioning was on, but the sun beating in through the windows combined with Edward's eyes on me made it difficult to cool down.

I leaned into the fridge a little, surveying the contents. "Umm… Well, it looks like we could stand to do a little grocery shopping. And by 'we', I mean me, because according to Alice, the term 'shopping' has nothing to do with the grocery store."

Edward just chuckled from his position on his stool while I continued to search for drinks.

"Alright, it looks like your choices are limited to coffee, water, wine, or some orange juice with a very questionable expiration date." I took the lid off of said orange juice and swirled it around. It looked and smelled okay, anyways. Best not to take chances, though, since I couldn't remember buying orange juice since I got here and I didn't think Alice had gotten it. I walked over to dump it down the drain.

"Water's fine," Edward laughed. I used the fridge dispenser to fill two glasses with crushed ice and water, and slid his across the counter to him. I hopped up onto the island and sat Indian-style facing him.

We sat in silence for a minute, but it managed not to be awkward. I swirled my finger in my icewater, looking down at the counter. When I looked up again, I met emerald eyes, and I couldn't keep my lips from twitching into a smile.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked, seamlessly resuming our Q&A session.

"Green," I blurted out, still looking into his eyes. I immediately looked down again, feeling my blush creeping into my cheeks.

Either he didn't notice my abnormal reaction, or he chose to ignore it. Either way I was grateful, and then it was my turn to ask the next question. "Favorite alcoholic drink?"

"I like hurricanes. How about yourself?"

I smiled. "Hurricanes are my favorite, too. I used to like Long Island iced teas, but there was an… incident."

He raised an eyebrow, and eventually pulled the story out of me. I had just finished telling him about that infamous night during my sophomore year of college and waking up in Rosalie's bed with Rose and a mysterious man. Luckily all of us were still clothed, and the mysterious stranger ended up becoming our friend Max. Still, waking up with a stranger in a bed that wasn't my own was not typical of my behavior.

After my embarrassing story, Edward jumped in with a 'drunken misadventures' story of his own. We were still laughing when Alice walked in the door from the garage, wearing a huge grin. She must have seen Edward's car parked outside and deduced who I was with.

"Hey, Bells," she chimed. Her voice held just a tiny bit more enthusiasm than it usually did. It was an almost imperceptible difference, but I could tell she was thrilled that Edward was here. "What's going on?"

Being caught by Alice had sobered me up a bit, but Edward was still struggling to recover from our laughter. "Hey Alice! How was work?"

She raised her eyebrow and slid her eyes from my face, to Edward, and back. It was a look that clearly said she expected full details later. "Oh, you know, the usual," she began, setting her purse down on the counter. "How has your day been?"

"My truck died," I sighed.

Alice snorted. "Are you sure it didn't commit suicide?"

I glared at her, but Edward laughed. "That's what I said!"

Alice turned to him as if just noticing he was sitting there. "It's nice to see you again, Edward. I assume that's your car parked outside?"

He nodded. "Yes, I gave Bella a ride home after work."

Alice's smile grew wider and she began to open her mouth, but I cut her off, not really wanting to know what she would say. "Edward was nice enough to bring me home, and to recommend a garage to work on my truck. They're supposed to call me back tomorrow to let me know how it looks."

"Well that _was_ very nice of Edward."

I hopped off the counter and subtly stepped on Alice's foot, warning her to behave herself. "Yeah, well, I tried to call you, but you didn't answer, so Edward had to go out of his way."

Edward was about to protest, no doubt, but Alice beat him to it. "Oh well then I owe you one, Edward!" I could see the twinkle in her eye, and felt panic rising. "I know! Do you have any plans for the Fourth of July? Bella and I are having a small barbeque, you should come! You could bring Emmett, and we'll have a reunion dinner."

Edward smiled. "My only plans for the Fourth involved restraining Emmett from pulling several dangerous stunts with some fireworks, and I have a feeling it will be easier if he's distracted. So thanks, Alice, we'll be here."

My jaw had dropped the minute Alice mentioned the Fourth of July. We hadn't planned a barbeque, had we? I glanced over at her, and the smirk on her face as she glanced my way confirmed my suspicions. That conniving little pixie!

Alice's phone began to play a mysterious ringtone that I'd never heard it play before, and she quickly pressed a button to silence it. "Great, we'll see you on Sunday, then! Bye, Edward!" She headed for the stairs, and I heard her answer her phone softly. It must be the guy who had recently become 'Boyfriend', rather than 'Potential Boyfriend'.

Edward stood up and stretched, and I ripped my eyes away before I could ogle him. Much. "I'd better get going," he sighed. "I promised Emmett I would work out with him after work today."

"Okay, thanks again for the ride. At least tomorrow is Saturday, so I don't have to worry about getting back to work again."

He smiled as we paused at the front door. "That's true. And so I guess I'll see you on Sunday."

"You don't have to come, you know," I muttered, blushing again. "It really isn't a big deal, we'll probably just barbeque and hang out by the pool…"

"I wouldn't miss it," he grinned. "I'll see you then."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later."

Our eyes met for a few seconds, and my heartbeat picked up. _This is awkward_, I thought. _Why do I feel like I should be kissing him goodbye?_ The thought brought back the blush that had been fading.

He reached out with one of his hands to lightly brush my wrist, then pulled back. He gave me his lop-sided grin. "Bye, Bella."

I watched him get into his car and wave goodbye one last time before he pulled away from the curb, before I headed upstairs to berate Alice.

I found her draped across her bed with a dreamy smile, her phone still in her hand. My anger was momentarily forgotten. "Was that Boyfriend on the phone?" I just realized at that moment that I still didn't know his name. Had she ever mentioned it? Alice always just called him 'Boyfriend'.

She sat up and nodded while I perched at the foot of her bed. "Oh my gosh, Bella, he's so sweet!" she squealed. "I miss him," she added sadly.

I scooted up to sit beside her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Only a few more weeks, Alice." She nodded, but still looked sad. "And apparently, you have a party to plan now. That will give you something to do in the meantime."

She perked right up, giving me her widest smile. "That's right! It's going to be fabulous! And I haven't even told you the best part yet!"

"Oh, and what's that?"

"I talked to Rose earlier, and she's coming out here to stay with us!" she squeaked, beginning to bounce up and down excitedly. "She'll be here early Sunday morning, which means she can join our party with the boys! I think she and Emmett will really hit it off."

I thought back to what I knew of Emmett from our brief encounter at the restaurant, and when he'd stopped by to visit Edward at work. Now that I thought about it, Alice was probably right. They would make a dangerous pair, but probably a good one.

I sat with Alice while she talked about plans for the barbeque, before retreating to my bedroom to take a shower. Before I undressed, I pulled my phone from my purse and called Jacob. We had been missing each others' calls, and I hadn't talked to him for a couple of days.

I got his voicemail again, and didn't bother leaving a message this time. I'd really just wanted to talk, so I'd try him again later.

When I was finished showering I threw on comfy clothes and was towel-drying my hair when I heard my phone beep, signaling a text message. I figured it was probably Jake, and checked it after I finished drying my hair.

_What's your favorite holiday?_

_-Edward_

I let out my breath in a rush and plopped onto the edge of my bed. He must have gotten my phone number from the list at work. I was ecstatic that he'd decided to continue our conversation, and only a small part of the back of my mind was reminding me that I shouldn't be so pleased.

I responded, and we continued our texting throughout the afternoon. When we ran out of 'favorites', we played desert island, and then the questions took a personal turn.

Edward had started out by asking about my family. Did I have any brothers or sisters? What were my parents like? We traded personal information well into the night. I was beginning to find that it was easier to be candid over text messaging. I didn't get distracted by his gaze, and he couldn't see my embarrassing blush. Some of our questions and answers were starting to toe the line between friendly and flirtatious, but we hadn't quite crossed that line yet.

Alice and I had spent the night talking, and I listened to her gush about Boyfriend while I continued my information session with Edward. I was used to going to bed early because of work, and even though I didn't have to work on the weekends, habit usually had me in bed by 10:00, which is why I was shocked when I realized it was 11:30.

_Time for one last question for the night, then I'm going to bed._

_-Bella_

I set my phone on the bathroom counter while I brushed my teeth, awaiting his response. It took him just a little longer than his usual response time to answer.

_Ok, last question… If you could pick anything to dream of tonight, what would it be?_

_-Edward_

My breath caught in my throat, because the first answer that popped into my head was 'you'. But I couldn't very well say that, now, could I? …Could I? I took a deep breath.

_You._

_-Bella_

No, I couldn't send that. Delete.

But really, what do you say to that? We'd been testing the boundaries with our text messages all night, and I finally decided to make the first step that might be over the line into flirtatious territory.

_;-)_

_Goodnight, Edward._

_Sweet dreams…_

_-Bella_

Just to be sure I wouldn't miss anything, I went to sleep with my phone under my pillow.


End file.
